Contents Under Pressure
by Fallen Angel Of The Forgotten
Summary: Shamal would never tell anyone, but Gokudera's biggest fear hadn't always been failing as the Tenth's right hand man. Instead, it had been something much simpler.


**Prompt: **Shamal + Gokudera or Shamal/Gokudera – puberty; "you're not going to go blind"

**Summary: **Shamal would never tell anyone, but Gokudera's biggest fear hadn't always been failing as the Tenth's right hand man. Instead, it had been something much simpler.

Contents Under Pressure

"Doctor Shamal?"

Shamal looked up as a maid entered the room, looking a bit worried. "Yes?"

"Young Master Hayato won't come out of his room for some strange reason, and the Master and Mistress are terribly worried about him. They were hoping, seeing as you know him best…"

Shamal nodded, rising from his spot on the piano. "I understand. I'll go talk to him and see if I can't root him out of there."

"Thank you." The maid murmured, hurrying off. Shamal resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The maids in this place were all skittish of him, mostly because they knew his reputation as Trident Shamal, and were more than fearful at the idea that he might sick his mosquitoes on them at any moment.

_I've got better things to do than throw my mosquitoes at them. Besides, it'd be a waste of materials. _

Ignoring that however, the man stepped out of the room and began the climb up to Hayato's room, intent on finding out what it was that was driving the little monster to avoid him. Hayato was a good kid; quiet but lively, eager to learn. He was usually found at the piano if he wasn't with Shamal, begging him to show him a new trick with the dynamites Shamal used. So the fact that he was holed up in his room was rather suspicious.

Of course, Shamal had a feeling he knew _why _the boy was holed up, but he wasn't ready to start counting his chickens just yet. Instead he whistled to himself as he stepped up to the third level of the mansion, rounded the corner and knocked on the white door that was the entrance to Hayato's room.

Hayato normally opened his door immediately, or at least gave a response. So it was only more damning that he didn't answer – and he also didn't _say _anything.

"Hn. Maybe my guess isn't so wrong after all." The doctor muttered, a smirk curving his lips. He tried to smother it quickly, lest Hayato see it. Hayato hated being laughed at, and being smirked at, in the boy's opinion, was just a single step away from being outright laughed at. Shamal cared too deeply for Hayato to inflict those kinds of wounds on him.

After a moment, Shamal decided to forgo knocking in favor of something more direct. "Hayato, it's me, Shamal. Are you alright? Your parents are worried sick about you."

Silence. Shamal flipped through his cards until he found one that would work.

"If there's something wrong, if you're sick or something, you can tell me, you know that right? After all, if it's a sickness that will prevent you from playing the piano, or paying attention to my lessons, then we want to get it cured as fast as possible, right?"

A creak of floorboards on the other side of the door told him where Hayato was. _Gotcha, boy._

Sure enough, the door opened.

If Shamal hadn't been so completely focused on keeping a straight face, he probably would have fallen down from laughing so hard. The silver-haired boy stood there in shorts, socks and a white button-up shirt, eyes wide with unshed tears and a look of pure horror on his face. Upon seeing Shamal, he tried to duck back into his room, only to squeak loudly when Shamal stopped the door with a well placed foot and slid inside, closing it behind him.

"Well now," Shamal focused on making himself look as professional (ie not grinning at his charge like he wanted to or breaking into peals of laughter), "your mother and father are quite worried about you Hayato. They even sent me up here, but I don't see anything wrong with you." _Not physically, anyway._

The boy didn't say anything, merely backing away from the doctor. Shamal raised a brow, amused. "What? Are you playing some kind of game, brat?"

No response, but the lips trembled and a light pink color began to make its way across the young face. Shamal had a hunch about what was going on, but he wasn't about to go making any assumptions without solid evidence. And the fastest way to gather evidence was to get the boy to talk. "What, are you suddenly retarded now brat? Did all those piano lessons break your brain? Or did Bianchi's cooking do the job?"

That did it. Face a mixture of red and purple, the tiny boy opened his mouth and let loose and mighty (and very cracked) roar, "SHUT UP STUPID OLD MAN! OF COURSE I'M NOT RETARDED!" He froze as he realized what he's just done, hands clamping down over his mouth as if doing that would retract what he'd just said.

Shamal stared at him for all of five seconds before he collapsed to the ground in fits, holding his stomach as laughter racked him. Hayato stared at him, eyes tearing up, before he turned on heel and dashed for the bed, grabbing the comforter and wrapping it around him.

The man on the ground knew he shouldn't be laughing at the brat since he himself had gone through puberty and _knew _how embarrassing that voice cracking could be, but he couldn't help it – listening to Hayato was hilarious. Still, he knew that if he kept laughing, he'd hurt Hayato when he needed to help him. "N-no, n-no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he apologized as he worked to get his laughter under control, gulping several times and covering his mouth as he snickered.

When he was finally and truly done, he wiped the tears from his eyes and walked over to where Hayato sat, throwing his arms around the boy's shoulder in comfort. "I'm sorry about that Hayato, but _damn. _I won't laugh at you any more though, I promise, okay?"

A sniffle had him stopping, his mirth replaced by a frown. Had he…? He hadn't actually made Hayato _cry _had he?

_Oh fuck me if I did. _Making Hayato cry was one of those things he regularly hurt others for – the fact that _he _might have just done the same made him no better than those assholes that he so hated.

But then the boy spoke, and any fears he had were swept away. "Of course you won't! I'm turning into a monster, there's nothing funny about it!"

Shamal blinked. Monster? _Really? _

"Uh… I don't mean to burst your bubble kid, but you're not turning into a monster."

"Yes I am!" And Hayato threw the sheets off and produced a small board where he'd drawn elaborate plans on them. "The first sign is the breaking voice! And then I'll lose my hearing, my sense of smell, my sight and eventually my touch, right before I transform into a vicious monster that's going to devour everything in sight! It's the only possible explanation!" His head hung. "I've checked every detail twice to make sure… and it's the only explanation left. I'm doomed, utterly and completely."

It was at this point Shamal decided that watching this little episode was like watching one of those Italian soap operas. _Such drama. _The doctor thought, rolling his eyes. Honestly, teenage boys were little drama queens – he knew because he had been a teenage boy, and not even the girls had beaten him when it came time to play that role.

It was amusing, and yet at the same time it was horrendously sad just how little Hayato knew about his own body. But Shamal was nothing if not a doctor, and it was the doctor's job to inform his patients about their bodies – even if it was something as simple as puberty.

"It's puberty, you damned brat."

"Don't call me that." Hayato snapped, and then turned curious. "What's puberty?"

The doctor resisted the urge to hang his own head and instead explained it. "It's basically everything that you just described. Your voice is cracking because it's trying to change into a more mature form, and likewise your body will inevitably follow. It's all a very straight-forward path."

"S-so I really am going to turn into a monster? With fangs and claws and an ugly appearance?" The boy whimpered.

But Shamal shook his head, face serious. "No, it's much worse than that I'm afraid. Much, _much_ worse."

The boy gulped and ducked down. "H-how much w-worse? What's gonna happen to me?"

The doctor's expression was carefully blank, his voice neutral. "You'll develop patches of hair in places you didn't have them previous, your voice will deepen, your body odor will become horrendous and you'll grow several inches higher. Oh, and you'll want to hump everything in sight for several weeks while your hormones kick in." he deadpanned.

"That sounds… actually, that doesn't sound bad at all." Hayato said, looking over his plans again.

"That's because compared to your original thought of turning into a monster, it's not." The man muttered drolly. Then he shook his head and clapped Hayato on the shoulder, forcing the boy to look up at him. "You're not going to go blind, brat. It's not something that's going to turn you into an outcast or a monster. It's part of life. I went through it, your father went through it, and hell, even the original caveman went through that. It's part of growing up. Once your body gets where it needs to be, the cracking voice and awkwardness will just fly away. But for now, I'm afraid you're stuck with it, same as every puberty-infected male in Italy."

The boy looked unhappy about this – Shamal couldn't exactly fault him. "Isn't there like, an injection or something you could give me to get rid of it? Reduce all that to nothing?"

The doctor snorted. "Brat, if I had a serum that could do that, I would have every boy in existence on my doorstep. I'd make _trillions_. But sadly, I don't, so you're just going to have to live with it." Patting the shoulder again, he lifted himself off the bed and walked to the door, glancing back. "Well, c'mon Hayato, let's go inform your parents that your drama for the evening is over. I'm sure they'll be happy to know their son is not dying anytime soon."

Hayato made a face, but got up regardless. "Do I have to?" he asked, voice cracking.

Shamal smirked, "Yes you _have _to." He mimicked the crack in the voice perfectly, and was rewarded by the sight of Hayato's entire face going cherry red. "Now come on, little brat. The faster we tell your parents you aren't dying, the faster I can show you a few new tricks with the dynamite I got in."

That seemed to do the trick, and Hayato zoomed down the steps, calling for his mother all the while. Shamal watched him go, chuckling under his break. "Such a little drama queen. I wonder what he would have done if I _had _told him he was turning into a monster…?" With that final thought, he closed the door and trotted off after the boy, content that for at least the moment he had eased some of Hayato's worries aside.


End file.
